I undertake a comparative analysis of the distribution of religious iconography in Hellenistic Bactria and Gandhara, using Ai Khanoum and Taxila respectively as proxies. I am using the reports of DaFA and John Marshall, as well as other relevant literature to construct accurate maps and databases of said iconography and comparing them to see different strategies of hybridity (Hoo, 2018). To do this, I am using GIS-based analysis (Laricella et al, 2017, Martinez-Seve, 2014), as well R, to identify the spread of religious structures and artefacts in the city. The major research question being explored for the article revolves around the spread of Greek, Iranian and Indian religious traditions, and their manifestations along within the urban landscape (Mairs, 2012, Canepa, 2015), as well as how this relates to the ideology of said those religions (Stoneman, 2018, Bronkhorst, 2017). The article seeks to delineate a method for identifying how religious diversity manifests in Hellenistic urban landscapes. Specifically, the Hellenistic period in the region saw connectivity between the Greek, Indian and Iranian cultural spheres, and I hypothesize that these relationships were manifested differently under different regimes and in different regions (Hoo, 2018, 1-3). Both cities had diverse populations and continuities of settlement (Bernard, 2005, 15-30), and although Taxila was occupied for a longer period, the Sirkap mound provides an adequate proxy to understand the Hellenistic period of the city. Therefore, it is assumed that they will have different forms of cultural hybridity, and this will vary spatially due to the differences in their locations and influences.
In terms of ‘'strategies of hybridity'', I am doing the following strategy; through building a database which has all relevant material culture (so religious artefacts or artefacts with mythological iconography) as well as entries of all the buildings (or in the case of Sirkap mound, blocks as described by Marshall), which are all georeferenced for mapping purposes. I have organized columns which record information such as material of items, iconography, periodization etc. Using these columns, I produce Graphs in R and using the georeferenced coordinates, I make heatmaps of the distribution of specific categories of images and compare them in between the two cities. For instance, comparing the presence of terracotta figurines in domestic or ritual contexts, or where for instance Dionysiac imagery is present if at all in either site. In essence, I'm working on understanding how the religious ecosystems of either site were set up and how urban space allowed said ecosystems to manifest.